Locke’s Second Treatise, Study Guide and Critique

Locke’s famous Second Treatise covers how he thinks proper government should operate. I focused on this treatise because the First Treatise is all about how no king and nobody can prove he is truly the direct heir of rule from Adam, and is a lot less relevant in today’s political debate climate.

Grab a copy here.

Chapters 1 and 2: Locke’s introduction and the State of Nature

Chapters 3 and 4: The State of War and Slavery

Chapter 5: On Property

Chapter 6: Of Paternal Power

Chapter 7: Of Political or Civil Society

Chapter 8: Of the Beginning of Political Societies

Chapters 9 and 10: Of the Ends of Political Society and Government and Of the Forms of a Commonwealth

Chapter 11: The proper limits of government

Chapters 12 and 13: The executive and federative powers, their goals, and their limitations

Chapter 14: On prerogative

Chapter 15: The three types of power and how they differ

Chapter 16: Of conquest

Chapters 17 and 18: Usurpation and tyranny

Chapter 19: Of the dissolution of government

Final thoughts and conclusions: Where Locke succeeds and where he fails